By a Fraction of a Degree
A FFVII Fanfiction work by findthetiger129
Rated T for Violence and Language.
I do not own Final Fantasy VII, or any of the characters, trademarks or likenesses from Final Fantasy VII or its spinoffs. That honor goes to Square-Enix, and they'll never let us forget it.
Dr. Owen is an original character.
Part I: Crossfire
Chapter 3, Results and Reunions
September 28th [ ν ] – εуλ 0007
"Tifa!" It was the following day and Zack was working on a new crossword while Cissnei sat nearby when he heard Cloud's voice again. He nearly jumped out of his skin because when Cloud had called out, it sounded sharp and frightened. Zack looked over at the bed and saw that Cloud seemed to be trying with great difficulty to pull himself up. He hurried over.
"Cloud?" He put a hand on his shoulder, trying to calm him down.
Cloud stopped struggling and looked up at him with terror in his eyes. "Zack, where's Tifa? Where's Mom?"
Once he was sure Cloud wasn't fighting him anymore, Zack removed his hand. "They aren't here," he said doing his best to keep his voice calm.
"But, Nibelheim… it was burning… Sephiroth… what happened? Where are we?"
That was when Zack had a terrible thought. "Cloud. Do you remember waking up yesterday?"
"Of course I do… we were at the inn… weren't we?"
"That was five years ago," Zack corrected him. He didn't want to upset Cloud any more than he had to, but he didn't want to lie to him either.
"What?" Cloud looked totally stunned.
"Yeah, you've had mako poisoning for the last few years. You came to last night, remember?"
Cloud thought about this for a moment and then looked back up at Zack, as though not sure what to believe. Finally he asked, "What happened to Tifa?"
That was when Zack realized something else. He didn't know what had happened to Tifa. The last time he'd seen her, she'd been hurt by Sephiroth really badly, and Cloud had been holding her in his arms before picking up the Buster Sword to charge at him. He really hoped she hadn't suffered their fate. He shook his head sadly. "I don't know. I wish I did."
Cloud's eyes widened in grief as a sudden realization came to him. "Mom died… " He said it barely above a whisper.
Zack nodded sadly.
"Sephiroth killed her." Cloud spoke as though he were seeing it unfold in front of him, freshly drawn on the canvas of his mind. "We went to the reactor… He hurt Tifa… and…" He reached up a hand and felt at the place where he'd been skewered by Masamune.
Zack watched a flurry of emotions play across his friend's face, and wished he knew what to do.
After a while, Cloud looked up at him again, having finally regained a hold on the present. "You said the Turks had us… That's right… they shot you…"
Zack sighed. "Yeah."
Cloud frowned. "What happened? I-I remember the reactor and Sephiroth… but after that… I don't know…"
"Don't try to force it," Zack said quickly. "We were prisoners for a long time, and you got mako poisoning really bad. I broke us out, and we came here. That's the important part. We'll worry about the details when you're better, okay?" He was perfectly happy not to remind Cloud of the lab right now, especially given the state he was in. Better to wait until he was in a more lucid frame of mind.
"I guess." Cloud still looked troubled.
"So, are you thirsty, or hungry or anything?" Zack asked.
"I think I'm… a little hungry."
"All right." Zack turned to Cissnei, who had been watching them from her seat. "Hey Ciss, do you think we could get some soup or something in here?"
"I'll see if we can." Cissnei stood and walked to the door.
"So, would you like to sit up?" Zack asked.
"I can try." Now that he had calmed down, it seemed he'd regained a little coordination, because he slowly pulled in his arms and began to push himself up. To Zack's surprise, he didn't do too badly. He made it about halfway up before he swayed a little, unsteady from not having moved on his own for so long. Zack moved in at that point and helped him the rest of the way up before adjusting the pillows behind him.
Once that was finished they waited for Cissnei to return. Zack made small talk about various things and tried to see if he could get Cloud talking some more, but mostly his friend just listened until Cissnei returned with the requested bowl. Cloud's dexterity was not quite sufficient to handle the delicate operation of using a spoon and Zack ended up helping him with it a little. But considering the difficulty he'd had trying to keep him fed on the way to Midgar, it was an incredible accomplishment to see Cloud actually eating something and not choking on it.
Before being captured, it had been a trial and a half just to keep him from suffering dehydration. When Zack had been able to get food into him, it had usually been limited to something with a liquid component, and he had always been slightly uncertain whether or not his friend's swallowing reflex would kick in at the right moment. A situation which had caused him no small amount of concern.
Eating did seem to take up what little energy he had though so it wasn't long after Zack had put the bowl away, when Cloud fell asleep again, still propped up on the pillows. Tseng and Rayleigh arrived sometime later, to find Zack watching him thoughtfully, and when he heard them enter, he looked up.
"So what's the word?" he asked.
Rayleigh gave Cloud an appraising glance before she spoke. "Well, I took a look at those samples. I expect you'll want to know about that."
Zack nodded. "Go ahead."
"To be honest, I don't know what to make of what I found," Rayleigh said, taking a seat in the chair Freya liked to use. "Most of the blood work came back normal for a pair of SOLDIERs. No chemical imbalances, nothing out of the ordinary aside from Cloud having a very high mako percentage, even for our recruits. That definitely explains why he's got such bad case of Mako poisoning and it suggests that Hojo may have used a much less diluted regimen of injections than normal, even considering the time you spent in those tanks. Your percentage is a little higher than normal too, but it's not as high. I think he may have discontinued his work with you around that point in the process due to your resistances. You were right when you mentioned those unique cells though."
"Oh?"
"Yes. When we utilize Jenova cells, they are implanted in such a way that they will spread and adhere to the subject's bones, nerves, and muscle tissue until the body is saturated. You had already been through such a procedure once since you were a SOLDIER prior to this, but I also found a different set of cells in your blood. They look like Jenova cells, but there are aspects to them that are different. These… 'S-cells' as Hollander called them were much less concentrated in your sample. I think because they were so similar to the initial Jenova cells, your body didn't alter itself very much upon the introduction of the new cells."
"In Cloud's sample, on the other hand, I exclusively found S-cells, and they are highly concentrated. I have no idea how it will affect either of you in the long run, unfortunately."
"I see," Zack said.
After a moment, Rayleigh went on. "I do have a hypothesis that I would like to explore further though."
"And what would that be?" Tseng asked.
"Well, Sephiroth was always of special interest to Hojo. That much is common knowledge among SOLDIER's staff. He was a very powerful swordsman, someone the President would love to have recreated. Based on what I've seen, Hojo may have been trying to use you and Cloud in an attempt to recreate a super soldier of his caliber using these modified cells. Naturally, the only way I could prove this hypothesis would be…"
"No," Zack said flatly. "I told you before, we're not…"
"Shh." Rayleigh held up a hand as though she was demanding silence before meshing her fingers together on her lap and she spoke as one who is trying to explain things to a child. "Zack, I told you before, I am not Hojo. I don't know what you thought I was going to say, but I am sure the reality is nowhere near what you're probably imagining. Now what I was going to say, before you interrupted, was that the only way to know for sure would be to talk to Hojo personally, which I can't say I'm keen on doing, given how protective he is of his research. He also might want you back, which is undesirable for all of us. The other alternative might be to try and find Sephiroth's medical records. If I could find a sample of his blood to compare the S-cells to, that would be better, but it would probably be very difficult considering that Sephiroth is no longer with us."
"I will have clearance to authorize your use of those records if they are in Shinra's database," Tseng said.
"Well, I guess we can hope they are then." Rayleigh said. "But knowing Hojo, I'm not holding my breath."
"So let me get this straight, you're just going to waltz in there and demand that information, just like that?" Zack asked Tseng, raising an eyebrow.
"It is my prerogative, as the director of the Turks," Tseng answered dryly.
"Isn't that a little risky? I mean you said the president lets Hojo get away with everything. If Hojo finds out, doesn't that mean he could get you in a lot of trouble?" Zack asked.
"He won't," Tseng answered. "And even if he did, it is in the interests of Shinra that the Turks have this information, due to the fact that we have you in custody on Shinra's behalf."
"Besides, we have our ace in the hole, right?" Zack looked up and saw that Freya had come in time to switch out with Cissnei on the watch. She entered the room as Cissnei left.
Tseng ignored her, but instead turned to Rayleigh. "If you come with me, Doctor, I can get you the clearances you need to search."
Rayleigh nodded, and stood up, heading towards the door.
Zack stood up too at that point and turned his attention to the director of the Turks. "Hey, Tseng?"
Tseng faced him, his expression neutral.
"Have you seen Aerith recently?"
Rayleigh paused at the door, but Tseng waved her along indicating he would be with her in a minute. "As I said when you got here, she's well. We do still have her under surveillance after all."
"It's just…" Zack rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably. "I came all this way to see her. After seeing all those letters… I wish I could have talked to her. I know that's probably something I can't do right now… and she stopped writing to me a year ago. I've just been thinking about her a lot… is all."
Tseng was quiet for a moment, and Zack suddenly felt really dumb. What was he doing? This wasn't Tseng, his Turk friend who he'd asked to look after his girl. This was the Director of the Turks, who had other priorities to think about, and was holding them prisoner, to boot. He shouldn't be gushing his sorrows to him. If anything, he should be trying to help Cloud get back to his old self so they could be plotting their escape together as soon as possible. To his surprise, even though the man's expression remained impassive, he answered, "I understand, Zack. I know this is hard."
"Is there any way you could… let her know I'm okay, and maybe deliver a letter to her for me, once I've written it?" he asked.
"We'll see," Tseng said, and with that, he left the room.
"So I guess Rayleigh just gave you her results, huh?" Freya asked.
Zack nodded as the door shut and he turned to check on Cloud before walking to the window, lost in thought. After a moment he looked back at Freya as he remembered something. "What did you mean, when you said the Turks had an ace in the hole?"
"Well, Hojo might get territorial about his research, but even he has no choice but to answer to the president," Freya said, taking the seat Rayleigh had vacated. "And we've got something dangling over President Shinra's head right now that prevents him from doing anything openly drastic."
"What's that?" Zack asked.
"The Vice President, his son, Rufus, was funding AVALANCHE under the table in a ploy to take over the company. We have him under house arrest at our headquarters in the Shinra Building. He was right down the hall from where Cissnei was ordered to put you until you woke up, in fact."
Zack blinked. Then he opened his mouth, closed it again, and finally opened it again to speak. "No way!"
Freya laughed. "But don't think for a second this is the only thing we're working on. We've got plenty of other concerns besides you to worry about that we might need him for."
"Like what?" Zack asked.
"Who knows? I might tell you one day."
Zack rubbed the back of his neck again, thinking. "Man, its complicated being a Turk, isn't it?"
Freya shot him a playful grin. "If only you knew."
September 30th [ ν ] – εуλ 0007
For Cloud, the last few days had passed in something of a blur. Sleep was a constant companion, and when sleep retreated he still spent much of his time barely able to string two ideas together into a coherent thought. There had been instances of clarity. He remembered the fight well enough. The point where Zack had fallen and he realized that they were both at the mercy of the Turks was a stark moment of terrifying reality in a vast ocean of dream-laden mists. There had been other things that had stood out of the fog too. Warm water… A game with a question he knew the answer to… Voices arguing… Being moved… More talking… Cold… Pain… He also remembered the sensation of Zack ruffling his hair when he'd woken up again, how surprised he'd been to find Zack was okay, and the water moistening his throat as Zack talked to him, and he'd heard Freya also talking nearby… Next had been a nightmare about Nibelheim, and then hot soup. It felt good to actually be able to eat. There had been something about being prisoners and mako poisoning in there too, somewhere… Zack had been trying to explain something to him… perhaps what was wrong with him. He knew something wasn't right…
There was an unfamiliar hand holding his left wrist, and at the sensation, his eyes opened fully. In a split second his gaze moved up to the hand's owner, and terror cut through his muddled thoughts like knife. He pulled his arm away as he thrust himself in the opposite direction from the man. That was when he backed into the person behind him, who had apparently come up against the side of the bed to stop him from falling. A strong hand caught his shoulder preventing him from struggling any further.
"Whoa, Cloud, it's okay. It's just Owen." He glanced up when he heard Zack's voice, and then looked back at the man with the white lab coat.
"Sorry if I startled you, Cloud," Owen said apologetically. "I just wanted to check your pulse and vital signs, all right?"
Cloud did not move. Something about this… he couldn't remember what or when, but something had happened before that at the very core of his being he did not want to happen again… "Stay away…" he whispered.
He felt Zack's hand tighten on his shoulder. "Believe me Cloud, I totally understand why you don't want him here, but he's not gonna hurt you, okay? He's been taking care of you for a while now." Cloud leaned against his friend as he tried to get his bearings, though he did not take his eyes off of Owen nor did he allow himself to relax. He and the doctor stared each other down for several seconds.
That was when a sharp stabbing pain suddenly assaulted the inside of his skull. He collapsed back into the sheets, curling in on himself and cradling his head in his hands. "Cloud! What's wrong?" That voice sounded far away. There were other voices too, one older and male, the other, young and female, but he didn't know what they were saying, he was too occupied with that aching throb…
Then it faded, almost like it had never been there. Slowly, he opened his eyes, looking around. "Cloud?" Why did he feel so disoriented? Only then did he realize someone was rolling him onto his back. He was too confused to resist. "Cloud, are you okay?" Odd… That voice… why couldn't he put a name to it? His vision cleared and he saw… three people he didn't know? That couldn't be right. There was a tall man with dark spiky hair to his right, and shorter one in a lab coat to his left. Another girl with long curly hair stood a ways off but he couldn't see her very well.
"Who are you…?"
The question was barely past his lips when the dark haired man on his right interrupted. "Come on, that's not funny. You know who I am… Don't you?"
"Do I…?"
Judging by the man's worried expression, he must have looked as confused as he felt. "Yeah, it's me, Zack!"
He shut his eyes as he tried to think, but couldn't seem to make any progress, which was a problem because the younger man calling himself Zack was acting awfully familiar with him. He'd put his hand on his shoulder like he was trying to comfort him but he felt so overwhelmed by everything he really didn't want to be touched. Why was it so hard to think? He pushed the man's hand away. That other man with the lab coat was a problem too. For whatever reason, just seeing him made Cloud feel ill. "Get away from me," he groaned, a little louder this time.
At that point, the man in the lab coat backed away, but as he did so he spoke. "All right. But at least tell me, are you in any pain? You were clutching your head a moment ago." Something had definitely hurt, but it didn't anymore, he was sure of that much. He just couldn't make sense of anything anymore.
"No… Leave…"
The man in the lab coat did not leave immediately. "Keep trying to talk to him. I'll be right back."
"What's going on?" the man called Zack asked.
"Normally, I would have thought it was delirium caused by the mako and that may still be the case, but it looked like he was having some kind of intense headache, though it seems to be gone. For now we just want to calm him down, all right? I'll be back in just a minute, there's something I need to get."
Cloud didn't let himself relax even after the man in the lab coat had exited from the room. "You really don't remember who I am." The man calling himself Zack seemed stunned. "Do you remember who you are at least?"
Cloud eyed him suspiciously, but thought about the question. He knew his name was Cloud though he had no idea what he was doing here… The man calling himself Zack seemed to take his silence to be as close to an affirmative as he was going to get. Either that, or he was used to silences.
"All right then. Listen here buddy, I don't know what's going on, but we just got you back, and I'll be damned if I lose you again, so if that means I have to remind you what's going on every time you open those bright blue eyes of yours, that's what I'm going to do." He looked like he was going to try reaching out to put a hand on his shoulder again, but on seeing Cloud flinch, he thought better of it. "So why don't we take it from the top. As I told you, I'm Zack. I'm your friend, and we're here because you've been very sick… otherwise, we'd probably be in a cell in the Shinra building… but anyway. We were in the Shinra military, and we met on a mission to this place called Modeoheim. We got to talking because we were both country boys, and, you know, us country boys gotta stick together…"
That was when it clicked back into place. Almost as though something had unlocked itself in his mind he distinctly remembered walking next to a SOLDIER 1st on a cold snowy mountain, and talking about reactors outside of Midgar. It had been such a brief lapse, but it had to be one of the most frightening feelings in the world. For a few terrifying moments, his friend had been erased from his memory, like he had never existed.
"Zack… I think I got it now…" He reached out and put a hand on Zack's arm to tell him he was okay. "Gongaga… right? So backwater…" He tried to laugh though it rang hollow. He was really getting tired of being tired but he could already feel the haze floating back to claim him again as the anxiety faded.
As Cloud slowly lost his hold on wakefulness, Zack grasped at the jibe as though it were a life preserver. "Ditto Nibelheim."
October 1st [ ν ] – εуλ 0007
SOLDIER 1st Class Kunsel frowned at the map he had hung up on the wall of the office he'd set up in his quarters. It was a situation that he had become used to but absolutely loathed. He lacked information that he badly desired. That was not anything new. Working on rumors was not the best way to chart someone's course across the planet. It left him making inaccurate assumptions, the best information he had was always out of date, and the worst part about it was the fact that for weeks and months at a time, it felt like he was in an information blackout. He had his resources, but even those had not led to a satisfactory result. It hadn't been the only thing Kunsel had been doing by a long shot. Even before the report of the two escaped samples from Nibelheim, he'd been biting at the bit to find a mission nearby so he could go investigate, but Shinra had denied him even that.
So now, here he was, worrying about a friend who may have died last week, for all he knew, and about a myriad of other little problems that he might have acquired trying to find the information. At first, when he'd heard about the Nibelheim escape, it had been a desire to find a way to make amends for the guilt he'd felt at not being able to do anything while his friend had been left to rot in some lab. Now, it had become an obsession. An obsession only made worse since Luxiere had disappeared. The 2nd Class soldier had been sent on a mission that was supposedly black ops, but Kunsel suspected it had something to do with rumors he'd heard of this Shinra project called Deepground. He'd looked into it in between looking for Zack, and that was why he had a feeling he was being watched. He didn't know when he'd bribed the wrong person, or where, but it made him worry that he might disappear too one of these days. It was this, more than anything that had given him the resolve to find Zack even more. And once he did, he would leave Shinra for good.
At least that was how it should have worked. He traced what he'd seen of Zack's trail along the pushpins he'd carefully stuck into the map. From Nibelheim, he'd managed to chart them through the areas around Cosmo Canyon, Gongaga (that had been a miracle in itself that he'd even found that old geezer who'd seen a man with a giant sword nearby), and Kalm (by way of some traveler at the Goblin Bar). He had absolutely no idea what had possessed Zack to take the long way around so that one guy had spotted him headed towards Banora though. Never mind how he had found a ship to get him to the Mideel area where the ruins of the village was located or from there to the Eastern Continent for that matter.
Even so, the evidence spoke for itself. Zack was headed for Midgar. Then there was that rumor he'd heard from one of his trooper friends. Apparently, a large detachment had been sent out into the wastes to intercept two escaped samples. The mystery of it was that it appeared nothing had ever shown up for them to intercept. It gave Kunsel hope that Zack might still be out there somewhere, but on the other hand, it provided him no confirmation of anything.
Kunsel donned his helmet and sword, and walked to the door, thinking he'd go down to the slums and see if he could find anything new. He might check on Aerith too. He'd looked in on the girl on occasion, during the first year or so of Zack's absence, though not recently. It had probably been just a coincidence that a couple of mornings ago he'd found her out above plate selling her flowers, but it had put her back on his radar so he thought it might be nice to see how she was doing. For all he knew, maybe she had heard something.
It was just as Dr. Rayleigh had feared. When she had gone to check out the Shinra archives a couple of days ago, Sephiroth's medical records had not been on file. She learned from the keeper of the archives that Hojo apparently kept his files separate in locked file cabinets in his office, for security reasons. Asking Hojo himself for the records did not strike her as a good idea, and so, at that point she had started weighing her other options. Tseng would have sent a team to Nibelheim already, but there had been a lot of AVALANCHE activity lately. Not to mention, they were having internal troubles at the moment. She sincerely wished things would quiet down soon, because she was hoping that Nibelheim might provide the pieces she did not yet have to this puzzle.
She had considered asking Zack's permission to take bone marrow samples to explore further in the meantime. But given that he was paranoid enough already, and justifiably so, she was very reluctant to strain what little trust she had managed to gain from him, if she could call it trust. It was more like begrudging cooperation under duress.
Eventually, she had decided it might be better to wait on the details of the experiments and their relation to Sephiroth and instead focus on learning more about the S-cells. After isolating the various cells in both samples at a centrifuge in one of the smaller labs where Hojo was not known to spend as much time, she had prepared three petri dishes, one for each of the samples of separated cells from the two men, and the last with a control sample of Jenova cells from the SOLDIER stockpile. It had been a painstaking process, but she had discovered that they did basically what Jenova cells did, except at a higher rate and greater output. She had gone through a large number of amoebas and other microscopic organisms, testing the change rates after exposure with incredible results.
The problem was that like the Jenova cells, the S-cells seemed to act like a disease under normal conditions. If left unneutralized by a higher than normal Mako percentage, such as the one Cloud had currently, the S-cells could kill the test subject very quickly without prior exposure, such as what seemed to have happened with Zack and his previous exposure to Jenova cells. It wasn't a new phenomenon. There were vaccines based off of that premise after all.
Still, it painted a chilling picture. There were reasons normal SOLDIER recruits also needed sterling psychological profiles along with being physically healthy. Normal mako percentages among SOLDIERs were difficult to handle for the best of them upon first exposure. She had been given Cloud's SOLDIER application along with all the other information the Turks could find on him and Zack when Tseng had first approached her. Though Cloud's profile hadn't been anything the kid should be ashamed of (there were plenty of recruits who got passed over due to a lack of self-confidence), from what she could tell, the experience of going through what amounted to a SOLDIER enhancement process on steroids had mentally torn him apart from the inside out.
The memory of that young infantryman, only fourteen years old at the time, who had picked up a sword he barely knew how to use and run out of that train car to help Freya with those people from AVALANCHE, tore at her heartstrings. Owen had been sending her updates of course. It seemed Cloud's sense of time had remained confused. He was awake more and more, but he was still spending a lot of his waking hours in something of a daze, and occasionally, he'd forget where he was… or sometimes when he was. The episode Owen said he'd had, involving a stabbing headache and temporary memory loss had been especially worrisome, but Owen hadn't been able to ascertain the cause, even with the hospital's resources and Zack reluctantly allowing him to try.
It wasn't just Cloud they were worried about either. Even though he'd done his best to be strong about it for his friend's sake, Zack had been greatly distressed by the whole event and after everything else the two had been through…
Rayleigh did her best to put these thoughts aside as she continued her work. She only had this lab for another half an hour, and while she had done what she had come here to do, she wanted to make sure it was properly cleaned before anyone came in here. She was taking a big enough risk as it was, using the equipment here practically under Hojo's nose, but it couldn't be helped. Even if the SOLDIER infirmary had enough medical equipment to handle actually treating injured SOLDIERs, it wasn't a laboratory. Having properly cleaned her workspace, and sealed everything that could be a biohazard, she gathered up the folder containing her photos and notes, and the insulated lunch box with a fresh scoop of dry ice she was using to keep the samples from spoiling, and walked out the door.
She made her way down a secondary hall of the Science Department towards the main exit, hoping she wouldn't have to talk to anyone on the way out. She had as much right to be here as any one of them, but she didn't want to attract attention if she could help it. Luck was not with her today. Upon coming out on the main hallway, she accidentally brushed past one of Hojo's assistants as he was carrying a tray of surgical implements. While there was no accident, it had been a very near miss, and she paused, looking back at the young man to apologize.
She saw Hojo approaching from a distance, issuing some tirade about how they should both be more careful with his precious equipment, so she mumbled an apology and something about being in a hurry before exiting the Science Department and quickly walking to the elevator. She breathed slowly as she thought of how close that had been. When the elevator dinged open on her floor, she walked out resolutely, hoping nothing would come of that encounter.
It was not until she had returned to her office, that she realized a photo she had taken of one of the surgical scars on Cloud's back was missing. It was one in which the scar he had received from the Masamune was clearly visible…
When Kunsel arrived in Sector 5, the usual smells of garbage and motor oil filled his nostrils. It wasn't an especially pleasant smell, but he'd been down here plenty of times hunting for information and was used to it. It didn't take him long to find the church, but when he arrived, he saw someone he wasn't expecting.
Walking to the door, almost reverently, was Tseng, the current director of the Turks. Kunsel was aware that Zack had been friends of a sort with the man before his promotion, but even with that knowledge, seeing him here made Kunsel wary. What business could Tseng possibly have with Zack's old girlfriend after all? As the man entered the church, Kunsel crept to the side and peeked in through a cracked stained glass window.
Aerith was indeed there, wearing a pink button down dress and a red jacket. She stood in front of the flowers at the end of the aisle, waiting for Tseng to approach. "Well this is an unexpected surprise. What brings you here today Tseng? Are you going to try to convince me to come back to Shinra again? It won't work."
Tseng closed the gap between the door and the flower bed. "Actually no."
Aerith was surprised at first and then she had this odd look on her face as though she was assessing the Turk director. "You're worried about something." It was not a question.
"I can't hide anything from you can I?"
"As long as I've known you? Don't even think about it." Aerith grinned. "Now what seems to be the trouble?"
"I've come with some news, about Zack."
Aerith's eyes widened and Kunsel expected his had probably done the same thing. Then he saw a look on her face that was clearly one of sorrow and worry. "Where is he? Why did he never write me back?"
"He couldn't," Tseng answered.
"Of course he couldn't!" Kunsel thought angrily, "Not with Shinra leaving him to rot in a lab!"
"And what about now?" Aerith asked.
"He asked me to tell you he was okay." Tseng spoke the phrase as though repeating it verbatim. "Although, if you wish to hear it from him directly, I can take you to him."
Aerith gave him a suspicious look as though judging his sincerity and then asked "Why would you do this without condition? Your job is to bring me back to Shinra, right?"
Tseng nodded. "That is true. But at the moment, there are other priorities that are taking precedence."
"Where is he?" Aerith asked.
"He's at a hospital in Sector 2, we can take the train if you don't trust me to take you by helicopter."
"I appreciate that," Aerith said. She reached down, gathered some more flowers to put in her basket and then followed Tseng out the door.
Kunsel stood there in dumb silence for a few moments. Zack was in a hospital? What was going on? Was he hurt? More importantly, why had it been Tseng who had brought Aerith the news? Did that mean he was under their protection? Or that he was their prisoner? Either way, this situation had just gotten a lot more complicated. With that thought, Kunsel quietly followed after the departing flower girl and her escort.
Today had been a reprieve of sorts. Cloud seemed to remember where they were and what was going on, though his speech patterns were still halting and slow. At least he could sit up on his own now, and Zack had taken advantage of this to get him out of bed and sitting in a chair near the window. It had been a nice surprise to discover in transit from bed to chair that Cloud was actually helping him along rather than hanging limp like he used to. Though he was still pretty weak, he was definitely trying to take as much of the burden for himself as he could.
Right now, Zack was sitting on his own bed, across from Cloud's chair, and for once, they were alone. Freya had gone off on some errand, and Zack figured Cissnei was with the others outside the room. It was nice to have at least a little privacy once in a while, though sitting in one place for so long made Zack restless. He decided to try putting that energy into something productive. Escape was not a current option, seeing as Cloud was still not in any condition to help, so he settled for attempting to write a letter.
Zack had never been all that great at writing letters. The problem being that he never knew what to put in them, and this particular kind of letter… he didn't know how to categorize it really, because he certainly wanted to get across to the girl to which he was writing that he still cared even though he had not been able to write her back for five years, but he had no idea how he could possibly explain to her on paper exactly why this was. Maybe there wasn't a good way to explain it.
Even so, this might be the only chance he got to contact her, assuming Tseng even allowed it. Resolutely, Zack began to write.
Dear Aerith,
I hope you are doing well. I know it's been a really long time, and I'm sorry if I worried you. The truth is, I only just got your letters from Tseng a few days ago. I really wish I'd seen them long before now…
Zack paused, thinking and then continued.
I read every one of them and I'm happy to hear you've been doing so well with the flowers. Tseng says you're even going above-plate to sell them sometimes. I guess that means you're not afraid of the sky anymore, right?
He chuckled at the memory of his girlfriend looking up at him with wide green eyes. He'd been a little hurt at the time when she'd suggested that SOLDIERs were scary too, but she must have gotten a little braver as she'd grown up.
"What's so funny, Zack?" He looked up and saw that Cloud was watching him.
"Just remembered something."
"Oh…" Cloud's voice trailed off as he looked back out the window, watching the activity on the street below in a quiet daze. It had been mostly clear today, even though they were stuck indoors and a beam of sunshine played across the floor, warming the room.
Zack went back to his sheet of paper.
I think that's really great even if it meant I had to miss out on showing it to you myself.
The truth is, even though I never was able to write you back, I never could stop thinking about you. There's so much I want to tell you, and I don't know where to even begin…
He paused. It was true, he didn't know where to start. The fact that he'd spent so much time trying to get back to her, only to be captured by the Turks, when he was so close! It was so unfair. She was down in the Sector 5 slums right now; he could have gotten to her in less than an hour from here.
I really wish I could talk to you face to face, but it seems I've gotten myself into a situation where I can't do that at the moment. Don't worry, I'm all right, and if I had my way, I'd be there right now, granting all twenty three of those little wishes…
He heard the sound of a door opening beyond the confines of their room, and footsteps approaching. It was probably the Turks or Owen moving around in the main part of the annex, so he turned his attention back to the letter.
I hope one day, I'll be able to make it up to you. I've had a wish of my own for a long time now, and I think it may be the same as yours if it's still what you want…
That was when he heard the sound of their own door creaking open, and to his surprise and shock, he found himself looking across the room at the girl he had traveled so far see. He folded the sheet of paper, and stood, noticing that Tseng was behind her. What was going on?
He looked at her face. Her beautiful green eyes were looking back at him, taking in every little detail just as he was. She must have gotten a new dress. He didn't recognize this pink one she was wearing, but even so, the old ribbon he'd bought her was still tied in her hair. After a moment, he let out in a breath "Aerith? What are you doing here?"
She smiled. "I came to see you, silly. Tseng brought me here." At that moment, Tseng's PHS started ringing and he walked a ways away to answer it. Tanjuu, who was on guard outside, shut the door.
Zack looked at her, completely dumbfounded, until he found his courage again and approached her, slowly, as though not sure what her reaction would be. But Aerith took the initiative at that point and she too approached. "Where have you been?" she demanded, and he noticed that she had tears in her eyes.
Zack's mind raced as he felt his own eyes began to water, but he couldn't come up with a way that would answer her in the time he had taken her in his arms. He just held her, not quite sure he believed she was really here and that it wasn't some illusion. They stayed like that for a while, before suddenly, another voice entered their awareness.
"Zack... is this the girl?… the one you brought us to Midgar for?"
Zack laughed. For a moment, he'd actually forgotten Cloud was in the room, and he looked back to see his friend watching them. He may have had mako poisoning, but Zack could tell that wasn't preventing him from feeling awkward about the situation.
"Oh, sorry. Yeah, this is Aerith. Aerith, this is Cloud. He's a friend of mine."
Aerith nodded politely. "Hello Cloud, it's nice to meet you."
"…Likewise," Cloud answered, offering a small smile. "Zack talked about you a lot."
"You remember that?" Zack asked him.
Cloud frowned, thinking. "I know you… talked about it… that was why we were coming here… right?"
Zack sat back down on his bed, surprised at this revelation. Maybe his friend had been more aware on the trip here than he'd thought. All the better.
After a moment, Aerith placed her flower basket by the foot of the bed, and walked over to him. "You came here for me? But where have you been all this time? Why did you never write back to me?"
"It's a long story, but the end result, as you've seen is that we're technically under arrest right now."
Aerith smoothed her skirt as she seated herself next to him. "And?" Clearly that was not sufficient.
"Well, do you remember when you called my PHS that last time and I told you I'd come visit?"
"Yes."
"Shortly after that, things went bad… Really bad. Sephiroth… the General went crazy, and Cloud and I, we had to stop him." He looked over at Cloud to see what his reaction would be, and on one level he was relieved to see the recognition in his expression, but on a different level he felt really guilty for having to remind his friend of two of the worst things that had ever happened to him. He could tell Cloud looked very uncomfortable about what he knew was coming, but it looked like he had resigned himself to it.
"He burned Nibelheim to ashes, and nearly killed everyone before going after this thing he called Jenova that was being stored at the mako reactor. He was obsessed with it, calling it an Ancient and convinced it was his mother." Zack shivered at the thought before continuing. "We managed to stop him eventually, though we were both really hurt. After that, we ran afoul of Professor Hojo."
"You never… mentioned that…" Cloud said.
"Well, you were upset about Nibelheim when we talked about it," Zack admitted apologetically. "And I didn't want to stress you out. Do you remember any more?"
"Not really… so there was more to it?" he asked.
"What are you saying?" Aerith's voice was soft as she asked the question, and for the first time, she sounded afraid. He couldn't be sure if he'd caught a spark of recognition in Aerith's expression as he mentioned the professor, but he could already see the concern in those bright green eyes, and it made him wish from the bottom of his heart that he could tell her it was all some joke. He looked to his friend again and saw that Cloud was listening with rapt attention, and the way he was gripping the arm of his chair told Zack exactly what he suspected. He wanted the truth as much as Aerith did.
Zack took a deep breath and plunged onward. "I don't get what he was trying to do with the experiments, but the problem was, he was using us as test subjects."
Aerith put a hand over her mouth as her expression changed from scared to horrified. Zack looked away from her, as he got the feeling if he kept looking her way, he might not be able to keep going. Cloud's expression had not changed.
"It was pretty bad. We managed to escape but it took us four years. We weren't in great shape by that point. I was able to fight still, but Cloud had mako poisoning really bad. Anyway, we were on the run for about a year before we made it back to Midgar. But when we got here, the Turks were waiting for us."
"Well, I guess that explains why you couldn't write," Aerith said, and then after a moment, she gave him another hug, and Zack felt an even stronger twinge of guilt when he realized she looked on the verge of tears again. "If only I'd known."
"Hey," Zack looked back at her seriously. "You didn't do anything wrong. If anything, you gave me the strength to keep going. I should be thanking you."
"That's not the point," Aerith said. "You were gone for so long, I thought you'd forgotten about me or found someone else when all this time… they were hurting you."
Zack put an arm around Aerith, trying to be comforting. "It's all right," he said. "At least it's going to be."
He looked up at Cloud, trying to gauge his reaction to all of this. He didn't seem angry at the very least, but he did look very uncomfortable at having to watch Aerith's display.
"I don't know where we go from here, but we'll figure it out."
Aerith seemed to have calmed down a little bit. "You did make it back at least," she said.
"Exactly," Zack agreed, figuring it was time to move out of the dark. "So… How have you been?" he asked, probably trying too hard to change the subject. "This is hardly the place for catching up, but I saw in your last letter that the flowers were selling really well."
"Yes, they have." Aerith went to collect her basket, apparently having decided to just roll with this change in tack for now. "Actually I brought some with me."
She showed him the basket's contents and Zack selected one of the yellow flowers and held it in his hand, sniffing it. "I remember these." He grinned. "I still feel kinda bad that I fell on them when we first met."
"You fell… on her flowers?" Cloud asked curiously.
Zack warmed up to the topic now that his friend seemed to be showing interest in the conversation. "Yeah. See, she grows them in this church down in the Sector 5 slums. The first time I met her, it was kind of an accident. I fell through her roof."
Cloud stared at him. "…How did that happen?"
"Well, it was around the time Angeal left with Genesis. I was trying to talk some sense into him at the Mako Reactor above plate and he knocked me off a bridge. He wasn't quite himself then. But anyway… I fell for a while and then everything went black! But then, out of nowhere, I heard this voice… saying 'HelloOoo!'"
Aerith gave him a playful push. "I don't sound like that."
"Hey," Zack said. "I thought I did you justice!" He grinned. "Anyway, when I woke up, there was this beautiful angel looking down on me, so I asked her if I was in heaven."
At that point, Cloud and Aerith both chuckled, and he joined them after a bit. It felt good. Especially since it seemed the Turks had the good graces not to intrude. He didn't know if they had some way of listening to the goings on in here, but Zack didn't intend on bringing voice to any of his plans for escape, nor did he particularly want to go back to exploring his memories of Hojo's lab. Instead, he kept the conversation to happier things. Time flew as they talked, telling Cloud stories about their adventures in the slums. It was about an hour later when Freya walked in.
"Well, long time, no see Aerith, I didn't realize Zack's girlfriend was you."
"You know Aerith?" Zack raised an eyebrow.
"We've met. She ran afoul of AVALANCHE when I happened to be near her house a while back."
"She what?"
Aerith giggled when she saw the look on his face. "It was okay, she chased them off. Actually, she fell in my flowers too."
"It wasn't the most graceful entrance. Shears, one of their leaders, he chased me up into the rafters and knocked me off." Freya grimaced at the memory. "It hurt, but at least the flowers broke my fall."
"Does everyone… fall in your flowers?" Cloud asked, another small smile playing at his lips.
"Well, you haven't yet, so I guess we haven't determined that for sure," Aerith quipped back. Zack laughed, though he made a mental note to ask Aerith about what she'd been doing that would result in an encounter with terrorists at a later time.
"Speaking of flowers, Freya, would there happen to be a vase here, so I could leave some for them?" Aerith gestured to the two men.
"Why don't you ask Owen? His office is the door immediately to the right after you leave this room."
Aerith nodded and walked out the door. Upon her departure, Zack regarded Freya suspiciously. "Why did Tseng do this for me?" he asked.
"Do what?" Freya said evasively.
"Bring Aerith here. I know the Turks watch her. I know what she is, and I know Tseng. He wouldn't just go out and do something like this just because it's a nice thing to do."
Freya shrugged. "Sometimes I don't understand him either. But it seems to me, that he decided it would be in Shinra's best interest."
"How so?" Zack asked.
Freya folded her arms in front of her and shook her head. "You may be a nice guy, but even if I did know, I can't be telling you ALL our secrets."
Zack gave her a fake pout before Aerith returned with a pitcher in hand. She walked to the bathroom to fill it with water. Once she was done with that, she carefully placed a decent arrangement of her flowers in it before putting it on the night stand next to Cloud's bed.
"That ought to brighten the room up a little." Aerith admired her handiwork, nudging one flower over a little bit when she noticed a spot in the bouquet that was a little spare.
"They look… very nice," Cloud said.
Aerith beamed. "Thank you."
They talked for a little longer before Aerith decided it was time to go. Cloud was starting to get tired anyway, so Zack reluctantly agreed. At that point Freya stood and got Aerith's attention. "Tseng instructed me to walk you to the church when you were ready, however he says you have clearance to come back if you wish."
"Really?" Zack asked, and Aerith seemed a little surprised too.
"Yes. As long as it's during the hospital's normal visiting hours," Freya said.
"That's great." Zack grinned and then his expression became serious. "Um… do you think we could have a little privacy while we say our goodbyes?"
Freya nodded and walked to the door. After it shut Zack looked at Aerith, and then over at Cloud. He had a feeling his friend had looked back out the window right then because he didn't want to intrude on them and that was the most privacy he could offer.
"So when'll you come back to see us?" Zack asked.
"I'll come in a couple of days," Aerith said.
"Okay," he answered her.
Aerith put her arms around him. "I'm really glad you're back."
"Yeah, me too." In a moment of inspiration, he leaned down and pecked a short kiss on her cheek as he returned the hug. "Be careful out there." His voice went to a whisper, which he hoped was low enough not even a hidden microphone could pick it up. "And we'll join you soon. Once Cloud gets better, we're busting out of here and then we'll go somewhere not even the Turks can find us."
Aerith gave him a mischievous look before whispering back "Tseng won't take kindly to that, you know."
"Well, he'll just have to deal with it, won't he."
"I guess so." Aerith pulled him tighter into the hug before letting him go. She then walked over to Cloud and tapped him on the shoulder to let him know they were done. When he looked up at her she offered him one last smile. "I've got to go now Cloud, but I'll be back to visit soon, all right?"
He nodded. "Thanks. It was nice… meeting you."
She went to reclaim her basket and after stealing a moment to give Zack a small wave, she was gone.
Tseng was on his way out of the hospital after leaving Aerith at the annex. He needed to get back soon. There had been a call from Reno giving a status report. Apparently while he'd been out, Scarlet had discreetly sent out some troopers to search for their hidden exit again. It couldn't be helped, not with this issue with Veld's daughter. Even if the President didn't know it, if the Turks couldn't find the last support materia first, before AVALANCHE did, and neutralize the threat from Fuhito, there might not be a Shinra left.
Tseng had assured himself that he was still acting in the company's best interest by helping Veld, but it was becoming harder and harder to use the Turks on this particular plan of action when Shinra itself was increasingly convinced the Turks were in rebellion over the former director. All that stood between them and Turk Headquarters getting stormed openly was the fact that they had Rufus and the fact that the President didn't want the truth going public. If this continued, he feared even that might not be enough. The president had been hindering them by proxy through Scarlet until now, but that could change at the drop of a hat. It was one of the reasons he had decided to hold Zack at the Turk annex with Cloud. It would have been easier to keep him at headquarters, but in their current situation, it was far too risky. It would have increased the chances that he might be removed from their custody and possibly returned to Hojo, when he and Cloud both stood as chips in a game Tseng desperately needed to win.
Tseng had suspected before now that Hojo's goals were not the same as the company's. He had almost been talked into leaving Shinra for AVALANCHE at one point after all. Tseng had not been sure if he was acting out of self-interest, or if he was just crazy, but Rayleigh had given more weight to his suspicions on the latter point, when she'd given her report after examining the two men. The search for a new SOLDIER enhancement process he could understand, but the way it had been carried out did not seem beneficial in any way.
A strain of Jenova cells that was so potent it required incapacitating mako percentages to control was not conducive to making better SOLDIERs, and more than anything seemed like a disaster waiting to happen. Further, it sounded as though Hojo had gone out of his way to make the necessary procedures for his research as painful as possible, like he'd enjoyed it. Hojo had offered a lot to the company over the years. He'd given them Sephiroth, had been instrumental in the SOLDIER program's early stages, and had made groundbreaking progress on locating the Promised Land, but as things stood, Tseng hardly felt this line of experimentation set a desirable trend for the company. Even so, it could lead to a new beginning, thus he'd brought Aerith to Zack.
It was not for him, or for their friendship even, though the added benefit to both was not undesirable. Tseng thought that maybe, once this mess was over, getting enough evidence to get rid of Hojo and mending some fences with the Ancient might be the ticket to getting her back for Shinra willingly, and getting the Turks out of the hot seat over Veld. It was a gamble and, if he wasn't careful, could easily go very wrong, but if he could place the blame for Zack's troubles on Hojo in Aerith's mind, find a way to expose Hojo for the quack he was to Shinra, and then use Aerith as a trump card along with Rufus, maybe this whole nightmare might end. Those were the cards he had to play. He would use them to the best of his ability.
Now if they could find that last support materia before Fuhito did, maybe they could save the company, and the city before something really disastrous happened. That was when he got the call from Rude. Apparently Rufus had sent him some information that he'd gleaned through the Shinra network (the president had absolutely refused to revoke his security clearances for some crazy reason), and it seemed there had been AVALANCHE sightings in the desert below the Gold Saucer. That needed to be investigated immediately. Once Rude was finished, he dialed a different number on his PHS and let it ring. The person he called picked up and he heard a light female voice on the other end.
"Tseng?"
"Valerie, I have a mission for you in Corel Prison. I will need you to leave as soon as you are ready. You'll get the mission briefing as soon as I get back to headquarters, and Rude will provide you with the necessary equipment."
The woman on the other end didn't hesitate to answer. "Will do, I'll be on my way in two shakes."
Tseng hung up and began the walk back towards the Shinra building, taking a discreet route that would lead him to the secret entrance to headquarters. There was still a lot of work to do.